Song Sung Blue

The film comes not directly from the events but from a documentary. Greg Kohs made a film of the same name telling the story of Mike and Claire, who performed in Milwaukee as the Neil Diamond tribute act Lightning & Thunder, through home video and interviews; this is the fictionalised version of that. The title comes from Diamond's song. The real details were hard. Mike was a recovering alcoholic and a Vietnam veteran, Claire a mother of two. On 10 May 1999, Claire was gardening in her front yard when a car went out of control and hit her. After she got a prosthetic leg, she began moving around the stage more. Craig Brewer directed, with Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson as the couple, and Michael Imperioli and Fisher Stevens in support. The interesting thing here is the subject itself. Tribute acts are usually a punchline, and the film treats this one not as a form of inferiority but as a life that genuinely worked for two people. Jackman's stage experience is used directly; he sings. Who it is for: viewers who like music biographies and openly emotional stories drawn from real events. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a Neil Diamond biography. Diamond is only a shadow here; the film belongs to the two people who lived by imitating him.